BioWare: Final Fantasy XIII is not an RPG
In a recent interview, BioWare writing director Daniel Erickson addressed his opinion on Final Fantasy XIII, saying that he does not believe it qualifies as a proper role-playing game.
“Well, before I address the main point [on Final Fantasy XIII] I just want to take a slightly more controversial route,” Erickson told Strategy Informer. “You can put a ‘J’ in front of it, but it’s not an RPG. You don’t make any choices, you don’t create a character, you don’t live your character… I don’t know what those are – adventure games maybe? But they’re not RPG’s.”
We’ll keep quiet on this one.
Read More: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, BioWare, Daniel Erickson, Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy XIII, RPG, Square Enix
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And once more, I didn’t know they were in charge of defining the mechanisms of an RPG.
It couldn’t be anymore lucid that cultural differences has had an impact on the construction of both types of RPGs. ‘Not being able to create a character’ is not an intrinsic feature of JRPGs and it’s been that way for the past two decades.
The first and last point in his statement is something congenial. I want the world to be enticing and the lives of the characters elucidated.
Haha.
Mass Effect 2 was more like a shooter with RPG elements anyway. Not gonna buy any more bioware games after this.
MASS EFFECT 2 is way better than FINAL FANTASY XIII. We had to wait till chaper 11 to start exploring and getting Side Quests, come on SQUARE ENIX what has happened to you. FINAL FANTASY has always been my favourite RPG series, but XIII has crushed that now.
Now i’m playing alot more Western RPGs like, MASS EFFECT and DRAGON AGE ORIGINS cause if FFXIII is the result of 5 years in the making than I am not waiting another 5 years for the next. BRING ON MASS EFFECT 3.
There’s no edit button, but I recall Kitase mentioning the team not being constrained by a particular RPG Template.
nonsense!!!!! FF is always an RPG….
That’s what I said!
the guy has a point FF13 is far from a rpg it has rpg elements but its not a rpg
Correction from my first post: I should say ‘is an intrinsic’ feature.
If building a character is the true definition of an RPG then you could say LPB is an RPG. Actually, the term itself is so ambiguous that you could define it in so many ways that you could call Pac-Man an RPG.
Break it down, Role Playing Game.
Role (n): the part played by somebody in a given social context, with any characteristic or expected pattern of behavior that it entails. I think you can figure out what the other two words mean. You’re “playing” a “game”.
By the definition any game where you assume the role of a digital avatar is considered an RPG but just like the word “MC” has been misused (it means “master of ceremonies”) to define someone who raps (well, at least it used to in the 80′s when you had names like MC Hammer, MC Ren, MC Serch and MC Lyte) the term RPG can be interpreted different across genres and cultures.
My point is that Bioware doesn’t decide what an RPG is and frankly I find their position rather insulting. If I had to guess I’d say that everyone at Bioware at some point played an FF game and thought about making their own kind of RPG so to put SquareEnix on blast is just a slap in the face to the game that all but invented the genre.
Ok, I have always been a JRPG fan, Final Fantasy has been around for along time and I never thought the day would come where I would acually choose a western RPG over a JRPG. After playing through Final Fantasy XIII I have to say I was very dissapointed, I did not enjoy Final Fantasy XIII at all. VII,VIII,IX,X,XII, they were Final Fantasy games, XIII was way to different to match the others. Linear, no towns, and the combat got boring fast. I decided to buy Mass Effect 1 and 2 since i’ve never played them and all I can say is that i’ve had more fun with those than I ever did in FFXIII.
Wow, I just knew there would be a bit of a debate going on with the comments here!
It is quite obvious imo that FFXIII is an RPG; not only is it from one of the most famous series of RPG, but contains (though in a different manner sometimes) many of the things we assiosate with the genre.
Building a character is more a WRPG thing, but that doesnt mean that a JRPG is not still an ‘RPG’.
Then again, Bioware love doing things like this, they are always antagonistic towards the JRPG genre. I dont know why – its not like its a threat. I personally love both JRPGs and WRPGs the same – if its a good game, Ill play it – no need for a genre pigeon hole
Well, maybe it’s not. But then again, Mass Effect is not one either.
I mean, BioWare is a bit silly with those comments. They even criticized “linear character development” – and what did they do in ME2 ? “one skill point per mission” system. How is that any different ?
Of course noone has to agree with me, but ME2 is nothing in front of ME1. This game doesn’t even have a good story…guys, 1 main quest – really ? Big disappointment for me as a fan of ME1.